There's something so amazingly unnerving about this book, yet I just couldn't put it down. I just knew that I had to find out what happened at the end, going backwards in time with each short story linked together. If you want something unique, dark, and luminously beautiful with brilliant language and imagery that will make your eyes plead for more, "Midwinterblood" is most certainly your kind of book!

I think the largest issue I had with this book was its sparseness - it was both the best and the most problematic issue of the book. While Sedgwick definitely has a way with sensory imagery and language, its sparseness both contributed to the charm of this story, and of all the characters and how they related towards each other as well as the past.

He can describe so much in only a few words, I feel like he could have poured more detail into some of the characters and world just a little bit more and still retain how tastefully dark this book was.

However. The language itself was nothing short of dream-like whatsoever. I plowed through the entire book in one (yes, ONE) sitting. It definitely seduced me and it's a breath of fresh air in the young adult genre, that's certainly for sure. I was immediately sucked into Merle/Eric/Tors worlds across time of how everything related to each other, and I couldn't get enough.

The ending was a bit abrupt, but for me, it worked quite a bit considering how Sedgwick shaped this book. There's a lot of weighted mood here, a lot of pain, but all of it is shaped into something thats absolutely beautiful.

Though the story as a whole itself is very complex when put together at the end, the base of the world and the characters themselves are very simply built. No over complicated overwrought characters fighting in a love triangle like so many novels I have read lately.

The characters act simply, and though the seven stories help us understand their motives better, theyre generally very simple in all aspects even throughout all seven of their lifetimes. It was such a breath of fresh air. The great thing is that even younger students will enjoy this book because it's so easy to follow. Yet at the same time, it's extremely intense.

We follow a set of people throughout a few thousand years of time, not keeping one single gender the whole way through, and their interactions do change from lifetime to lifetime. Its themes are also rather simple: separation, forgetting and remembering, reincarnation, and acceptance (as Erik consistently mentions throughout the book as, "And so it is"). But all of it is woven together into a plot so tight you'll want to keep turning the pages whilst youre meant to be asleep!

There's not a lot of happiness in this book. There's a lot of painful reality, even for a mystical reality genre book. There's a lot of gloom, a lot of human darkness, and a focus of studying the failings of humans; especially in regards to how they take care of each other in a social setting. This is not a light, fluffy book (but that's what we need more of in the young adult genre).

It makes you think.

It makes you work for the final answer you find in the epilogue, even though it's so simply constructed.

There's a lot of soul-searching (quite literally) that goes on in this book, and a lot of characters being used as symbols. And bringing together ALL of the aforementioned into one story? Not easy. Not easy at all. Yet it all worked, and worked spectacularly like clockwork.

So I have to take my hat off to Sedgwick for constructing such a wonderful story.

Final verdict? This is the perfect book if you're feeling a bit moody or you want to explore the idea of humanity as very faulty creatures.

I have finally recieved my special edition of Dishonored after waiting for 2 months due to 'complications'.

Happy new year everybody! Let's keep on gamin'!!!:D

After over 6 months of no anime watching marathons my fellow anime nerd friends literally forced me to watch Mirai Nikki. Lets just say I'm back into anime again and I shall be digging out all of my dusty old mangas!

One of my friends bought a Wii U today, and after hours of lining up and waiting she finally gets hold of one but then has to wait 3 hours just to be able to update it and play a game! It's more like a Wii update than a Wii U!

Went out and bought a new bass guitar yesterday, it may not be a Fender but I can still get a great tune out of it. It happens to be very light compared to my last guitar, the neck is made from maplewood and the fretboard is made from rosewood. I think it's called the PGB-100 (off the top of my head):lol: It already has name which is Scarlett and here is a picture of her

The highschool that I go to is starting an extracurricular Latin course for all pupils who want to study and learn Latin, I've filled out the application form and have also handed it in. I just have my fingers crossed on whether or not I will get a place due to there being only 20 places out of a school of over 1,700 highschoolers and sixth-formers.:P

I'm not sure whether or not to buy Dishonoured as a little christmas treat next month, I have heard about it being rather short but it apparently has very good re-play value etc. Oh well, I can always pre-order Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time because that is pretty much an exstension of my childhood XD

I have always viewed the main three sciences as so :

Biology - More hands on, and 'ooooh how does this work?' (perfect for me)

Chemistry - The whole 'Oh lets put these 2 pretty liquids together and see if they have a reaction *giant boom*, period tables and balancing equations etc.

Physics - Making it up as you go along and hoping it works

A large majority of my mothers family leans towards physics and biology and have gone to work as lab supervisors, uni profs. and so on. But for some reason we are all terrible at chemistry, I have been predicted and A* for all three of my sciences but I keep on falling behind in chemistry no matter how hard I try. I'm not a bad student either, I fly through the rest of my subjects with ease and I'm at the top of my class for every subject but chemistry.

Hopefully if all goes well I'll probably pass with an A meaning I can go onto sixth form and take my A-levels which will hopefully ensure me a place Hartpury college in an (hons) PhD Equine Sciences class which is centred around biology anyway. :D

My cat Rarity's kittens have finally arrived! When I got home from riding my horse, I was just chilling out on AC3 when my other cat Luna came up to me miowing her head off and bounced off in the direction of the bathroom. So I being rather intrigued followed her to discover the sight of Rarity pushing out a black and white kitten sack and all, so I spent the next 5 hours helping this cat push out 2 more babies whilst cutting the umbilical cords and removing the sacks.

The firstborn is called Blaze (tom) due to a large stripe down his face, we then have Twilight (queen) who has a white moustache and belly and last but not least there is Discord (tom) due to thinking he was black cat but instead he has little white bib. They are currently 2 weeks old now and have their eyes and ears opened up properly as well as starting to learn how to walk!:lol: